Re: [ontolog-forum] Time representation

[Pat Hayes <phayes@xxxxxxx>]

At 11:38 AM -0800 1/22/08, Duane Nickull wrote:

> On 1/22/08 11:29 AM, "John F. Sowa"
> <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > When we say "See you at noon", we certainly don't mean
> at
> > 12:00:00.000000000000000000...
> >
> > If several of us gather "at noon".  What criterion
> would you
> > suggest for claiming that we all arrived "on time"?
> >
> > I'm willing to admit that perhaps it's impossible to define
> a
> > domain-independent axiomatization
> that could answer such questions.

Of course the ontology's 'points' may not be really point-like in the real world. Nevertheless, they are conceptually points within the ontology's world-view. Noon is a point. The fact that we often use the term sloppily does not make it any less pointlike for reasoning purposes. If something is true until noon and also from noon onwards, we don't expect it to be false for a few minutes in the middle.

> Contrast the train service in Switzerland
> vs. the bus schedule in Vancouver.
> In the context of the railroad industry in Switzerland, one could
> literally
> set their watch to a precision of within 1 minute from the point a
> train
> stops moving on the tracks upon arriving at a station. In Vancouver,
> the bus
> schedules with frequencies of more than one bus every ten minutes
> are
> disregarded as each bus can be up to to 8 minutes before or behind. 
> In
> Vancouver, when we say noon, we really mean anytime between 12:10 and
> 12:45.
> No one arrives right at noon in my circle of friends except for my
> German
> wife.

Many years ago my family took up temporary residence in Geneva. We were invited to an informal dinner party, and arrived (fortunately) a few minutes early. In the hallway outside the apartment a small group of people were waiting, chatting amiably. As the invitation time approached, one of the group looked carefully at his watch and, with his finger poised over the bell button, waited until the second hand came up to the hour, then pressed the button on the very second. It was opened immediately by the hostess, who clearly had been waiting just inside for the same moment to arrive. I understood then why Swiss watchmaking was so universally admired.

Pat

> ;-)
>
> Duane
>
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